Real Me
by Cordelia Darling
Summary: I do the first thing that comes to mind. I scream. I scream my ass off. I expect the Scout to just let me go to avoid embarrassment, but instead he grabs the man next to us and throws him into the wall. That gets everyone’s attention.
1. Memory Loss

My computer is talking to me. It's screen goes blank and a prompt appears, with my hacker alias on it.  
  
IT HAS YOU, VRAI.  
  
I have no idea what the hell is happening to it, and I hope to hell it doesn't have a virus. I could afford to get a new one, but that would mean losing all my files. Including my homework. I groan and attempt to CTRL ALT DEL it, but the prompt stays up there.   
  
WE'LL BE WAITING.  
  
The screen goes utterly blank, and there's a knock on my door. It's probably Cynthia, my sister, and her boyfriend Damien, waiting for me to hurry my ass up and get to the party we were invited to.   
  
I open the door. I was right. Cyn is standing there, wrapped up against Damien, looking stunning, as usual. Damien creeps me out- his eyes are a little to blank for comfort, but Cyn trusts him, so I try to be nice.   
  
"Hey, Dana, you're late."   
  
I grit my teeth, but I don't say anything. I push past the two and lock the door behind me.   
  
"Let's just go."  
  
***  
  
Some Japanese pop singer is melting through the speakers and onto the dance floor. Bodies are crushing together, and I'm pressed in with them, sweat clinging to my body like a second skin. The music is coursing through my veins and I'm getting lost within myself. I hop[e that this feeling will last forever.  
  
A woman with dark hair and beautiful slanted brown Asian eyes is dancing in front of me. She's pressing so close to me, I can feel sparks shooting between our flesh. She's looking straight into me, singing along with the lyrics. She's so strangely exotic and beautiful, I press closer to her, and she grabs my wrist.   
  
We make our way over to the bar, her hand still firmly attached to mine. She turns a to me, and we meet eyes. I can tell whatever she has to say is important. She presses close against my body and whispers in my ear.  
  
"I'm waiting for you, Vrai."  
  
I pull away, and look at her, stunned. No one knows that name except for Cyn. She's the girl from my computer. She notices my realization and wraps her hand around the back of my neck, her lips brushing my ear. "I've been waiting for you. I know what you want. I know what you're looking for."   
  
Out of the corner of my eye I see a man dressed in a suit coming towards us. He looks like some talent scout. She follows my gaze. Her eyes go wide, and she turns back to me, and whispers something else into my ear.  
  
"Meet me at L.A. River tomorrow night with your sister," She pulls away to look at the talent scout once more and then back into my eyes, "and be careful."   
  
She's gone before I can ask her her name, and the talent scout is in front of me, staring at my through his glasses. I feel is hand touch my shoulder before I see it. I'm looking up at him, and I'm scared witless for a moment. Then I shake it off- why the hell would I be scared of a talent agent?  
  
"Sorry, but I'm not into modeling or whatever you're plugging." The guy isn't listening to me. Instead, he grabs my wrist and starts pulling me away. That's when I start to get scared. The pepper spray I carry in my purse is too far out of reach, I can't see my sister anywhere, so I do the first thing that comes to mind. I scream. I scream my ass off.   
  
A guy to my left turns and sees me. He glares at the man.   
  
"Hey, let her go, man!" he tells talent scout, and I expect the scout to just let me go to avoid embarrassment, but instead he grabs the man and throws him into the wall. That gets everyone's attention. Through the crowd, I see my sister, and her eyes are rage and fury.   
  
"Let her go!" She yells in the man's face. The man grabs her wrist too, and before we know what's happening, we're being pushed through the crowd and out the door. There's a car waiting outside for us, a black Mercedes. The scout pushes us into it, and locks the door. He gets in the passenger seat two minutes later, and we're moving.   
  
"We have a warrant for both your arrests," He says. Then it dawns on me. He' s no talent scout, he's FBI or CIA or some other crap. Shit Shit Shit. Cyn is getting indignant, and yelling at the man, but I'm frozen. What does this man have on me? Does he know about the things I've done? The laws I've broken. How the hell did he track me down?   
  
We pull up in front of a large government building, and we are escorted out. We are led down halls with undistinguishable features, until we finally enter a small conference room.   
  
"Miss Cynthia Burkhart, Miss Dana Burkhart. You are being held here for information..."   
  
The agent drones on and on and I don't here a word. His eyes are hidden behind his glasses. He stops, and I assume he's waiting for either of us to say something. Cyn gives him the finger, and swears. That seems to be the wrong answer. Another agent grabs Cyn from behind and hold her as another shoves something metallic into her neck. Cyn's body goes limp, and I find that I'm screaming.   
  
The agents are on top of me in an instant, holding me down with their weight, but I'm kicking and clawing at their eyes with my nails. I grab someone's head and without thinking, I twist. There's a thundering crack and his body falls limp. There's a flash of light and where the man was lying two seconds ago, another man is lying. I scream again, and the agents pin me down and something sharp hits my neck. Everything goes black.  
  
***  
  
  
  
My head hurts and for a second I don't know where I am. That's been happening to me more often then not lately. But I remember the drinks I had last night, one after the other. I can't remember what possessed me to drink- I never drink over two shots, but I'm forgetting everything as my stomach heaves whatever's left in it in the sink that I managed to reach. I peer up at my face in the mirror hanging over the sink and groan. I look worse than death. I have dark reddish circles under my eyes, my skin is paler than usual, makeup is smudged all over my face, and there's a bruise on my left cheek that I don't remember getting.   
  
I stagger out of the bathroom, throw off my corset and my pants and fumble through my dresser for something to wear. I finally settle on a bright orange tank top and cut off shorts. In the bathroom, I carefully wash my face and put concealer over the bruise, hoping that my friends won't notice.   
  
There's a knock on the door and I wince as my head pounds. "Come in!" I yell, and Cynthia, my twin sister comes in. She's wearing a pink tank top and a white mini skirt, and looks a little worn down, despite the makeup that's pancaked on her face, trying to hide it.   
  
"Last night was horrible." she mutters, shutting the door behind her. I nod, and we both collapse onto my couch, feeling equally worn.   
  
"Do you remember anything besides the–" I mime a drinking motion, and Cyn shakes her head.   
  
"No. Bits and pieces are coming back to me though. I think there were some talent agents at the party or something. They wanted our cards or something."   
  
Something flashes in my memory and I see faces. One's this cold looking man, and the other is this Asian girl with beautiful brown eyes. The man's face makes my nervous, and I rub my neck anxiously.   
  
"Yeah, I remember a little," Not enough though, I already know that. Something strange happened last night. I look at Cyn, and she looks as worried as I am. She's got her hand on her neck as well.   
  
The sudden ringing of the phone makes us jump out of our skins. We look at it for a moment, before I pick it up.   
  
"We're running out of time. Meet me at the L.A. river in twenty minutes. Bring your sister."   
  
The phone goes dead, and I look up at Cyn, the reciever still resting in my palm.   
  
"We've got to go." 


	2. Scream

A woman never runs away/a woman never hides away/in order to survive - Real Me, Ayumi Hamasaki  
  
Mischa grimaced as she put the phone down and stood staring at it for a couple more minutes. The girls she had been tracking for some time now were a very interesting case. Twins never usually were unplugged. If one was even slightly interested in what the Matrix really was, the other was grounded enough to keep them both there. And there was something about twins that kept them in the Matrix.   
  
And the connection that she had felt with Vrai...  
  
Mischa turned her brown eyes to the door as it opened. Ganther, a tall dark Italien man strode into the room, followed by Cupid, a tiny French girl. Gunther smiled at Mischa's stony expression and gave her a quick hug.   
  
"Hey, bella, relax. We'll pick up the twins, get them into a trace program and get them in the Real World before the Agents will even know what's going on."  
  
Mischa knew Gunther was trying his hardest to cheer her up, but try as she might, all the could give him was a tiny half-smile.   
  
"I'm sorry, Gun. I just have a bad feeling about this."   
  
***  
  
"We've got to go."   
  
Cyn is staring at me in disbelief. "You can't expect me to just go off galavanting with you?"   
  
I sigh and walk to my closet, where I grab a white coat and throw it over my shoulders. I'm putting on my Vans, when Cyn comes up behind me and holds the balls of my shoulders, staring deep into my eyes.   
  
"This has to do with those agents last night, doesn't it?" She asks. I nod, "Damnit, I iknew/i there was something weird that was gonna happen."   
  
I nod again, and when I walk out the door, Cyn follows me. She looks uncomfortable. "Do I need to get anything?"   
  
I look at her, and we both know what the answer is. It's no. We won't be coming back here. Not the same, anyway.   
  
It takes us twenty minutes to get to the L.A. river from where we live usually, and we get there in record time, sparing about eight minutes. We're sitting on the bank on the trickle that is supposed to be a river when a black car pulls up and Cyn grabs my hand, the grip strong and tight. I squeeze back in reassurance.   
  
The girl from last night opens the door. We're already on our feet and I get into the car first. Sitting shotgun is a large Italien guy, and there's a tiny woman driving. I'm snapped out of my reverie by the slam of the door. Cyn smiles in my direction apologetically.   
  
"Do you know why you're here?" The Asian woman asks us. Cyn answers before I can, "Those weird agents," Cyn and I both touch our necks involuntarily, "They wanted something from us, but we can't remember what."   
  
The man says something in Italien that I'm guessing is a curse, because the Asian woman swears as well.   
  
"They've given you mem. erasures."   
  
Almost on cue, the tiny woman that is driving steps on the gas and we speed up to 55 m.p.h.   
  
  
  
***  
  
"They're on the move," two men stand in Dana's apartment.   
  
One man turns to the other. Both are generic- white, middle-aged, suits, sunglasses, bad haircuts.  
  
"Find them."   
  
***  
  
We get to a small house in the valley. It's brightly coloured, small and the yard is filled with jacaranda and magnolia. Inside, the house is warm and inviting, filled with old photographs, weathered furnitature and a white cat that slides between my legs and purrs.   
  
"We have to move fast, so we'll go through this fast," the Asian woman puts out her hand. Resting on the left palm are two red pills. One the right are to blue pills, "The red will take you away from the world where you're uncomfortable, and spin you down a rabbit hole. The blue will keep you here. You will never see us again."   
  
I reach for the red pills, my hand drawn the them magnetically. Cyn hesitates, and then follows.   
  
We swallow the pills dry, as the Asian woman sits us down and puts some medical crap on us.   
  
"We've got a lock," the Italien man says. He's sitting with some computer equipment, and the little woman is looking over some other equipment. I have an urge to go over to them and look at what they're doing, but my body is stiff. I start shaking, cold sweat breaking across my forhead, beading and dripping past my eyes. At them same time, my head and Cyn's are thrown back, and we scream, our voices echoing together, as if we are one. 


End file.
